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Kings-Coyotes series

NHL Playoffs: Phoenix Lives To Play One More

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The Phoenix Coyotes weren’t able to stop the shot barrage that the Los Angeles Kings have put on this series, but they were able to mitigate it and redirect it, and that was enough for goalie Mike Smith to deliver the Coyotes a 2-0 win in Game 4 of the NHL’s Western Conference Finals and avoid a sweep.

Los Angeles got 36 shots on Smith, who’s routinely faced 40-plus throughout these playoffs. Normally a 36-21 shot edge like the Kings had will win you a game, but not only was Smith in lockdown form, but Los Angeles was not as successful getting the puck in the hands of their best players. Five shots were taken by defenseman Drew Doughty and five more by non-descript center Trevor Lewis. That’s a lot less scary than the puck being in the hands of Dustin Penner, Dustin Brown or Anze Kopitar. While Penner got four shots, the other two only combined for that same number.

 

Phoenix may not have pounded LA goalie Jonathan Quick with raw volume, but their key offensive players finally awoke. Shane Doan scored off an assist from Ray Whitney on a first period power play, and then Doan scored again, this time off an assist from Antoine Vermette in the second period. Doan, Whitney and Vermette are all important to the Phoenix offense and all have been virtually non-existent for the first three games.

Tonight the Eastern Conference has its Game 4, as New Jersey faces a must-win at home, trailing the New York Rangers 2-1 in games. This series is coming off Henrik Lundqvist’s brilliant goaltending performance in the Game 3 win and you wonder if, given how well the Devils otherwise played, if that isn’t the kind of game that can suck the life out of a team. I picked this series to go seven games at the start and I’m not changing, but I’m also on alert tonight to see if New Jersey folds, or if Lundqvist is about to go on one of these extreme hot runs that good goalies can do in the NHL playoffs.

NHL Playoffs: Sharp New Jersey Defense Ties Series

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The defenses were sharp last night in Madison Square Garden as the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers hooked up for Game 2 of the NHL’s Eastern Conference finals. But the Devils were the sharper of the two and they got the big goal when then they needed it to tie up the series at a game apiece with a 3-2 win last night.

New Jersey scored early on the power play, with its key players got together, Zach Parise feeding Ilya Kovalchuk for the early lead. Combined with a tough overall defense that limited New York to five shots in the opening period, the Devils took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission. The Rangers came out with a strong second period. They got 12 shots and with a goal early in the period and again about halfway through, they took a 2-1 lead, but before it was over, the Devils had snuck in the tying goal. Then early in the third period, at about the 17-minute mark, New Jersey center Adam Henrique missed a shot off the iron, but David Clarkson was in position for the putback and the Devil defense made the lead stand up.

Each team was fairly equal in shots—New Jersey leading 27-25 and each did the job in keeping the other team’s stars off the puck. After the early goal, Kovalchuk and Parise were quiet. But New York’s key players were even more silent, with Marian Gaborik and Ryan Callahan combining for only three shots. The potential vulnerability of Devil goaltender Martin Brodeur if he’s overexposed has been a regular theme of TheSportsNotebook’s playoff coverage, as has the quality of their team defense. The latter did the job last night, keeping New York’s shot totals to a moderate level and ensuring the best players weren’t the ones doing the shooting.

The Western Conference Finals resume tonight in Los Angeles, with the Kings having won the first two games in Phoenix and looking to put a stranglehold on the Coyotes. Honestly, right now I’m just looking for a reason to think the ‘Yotes can win a game. We’ve clearly hit a limit in how far goalie Mike Smith can personally carry the team and the whole formula of Smith getting more saves in a night than Mariano Rivera used to get in a season and covering for an offense that does nothing and a defense that doesn’t protect, has clearly run its course. Yes, Smith might win a single game for Phoenix. But tonight I not only want to see them win—trailing 2-0 that’s obviously a necessity—but I want to see them do it in a way that makes me think they can still make a series of this. I doubt we’ll see the former and convinced we won’t see the latter.

NHL Playoffs: Los Angeles Keeps Dominating Phoenix

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The Los Angeles Kings look unstoppable and the Phoenix Coyotes look like they’ve finally hit the end of the line, as the Kings took their second straight win in the desert, grabbing a 4-0 win in Game 2 of last night’s NHL Western Conference Finals.

Dwight King, a key part of the Game 1 win, made his mark on Game 2 quickly, with a goal off a feed from defenseman Drew Doughty. It was part of a period where Los Angeles hammered Phoenix goalie Mike Smith with 15 shots. In the second period the mismatch got worse. LA center Jeff Carter scored twice, the first time off a combined assist from Dustin Penner and Mike Richards and then on the power play from Anze Kopitar and Justin Williams. This too, was part of a period where the Kings pummeled Smith, hitting him with 17 shots. Smith didn’t have his best game, but there’s no way a team is going to compete at this level of the playoffs with the goalie is consistently exposed as the Phoenix defense allows. The scoring ended in the third period when Carter completed his hat trick, with another power play goal, fed by Dustin Brown and Kopitar. Los Angeles settled for eight shots in this period, although it’s safe to say everything was oriented to defense by that point.

 

What’s impressive is not just that Kings are dominating play so thoroughly, but throughout this postseason run they consistently get their production from the same players, and that group is broad enough to not be one-dimensional. Carter isn’t normally this big a part of the offense—well, since he had a hat trick last night, I guess that much is obvious, but you get the general point. But players like Kopitar, Brown, Penner and Doughty have been a part of the attack, either scoring or passing. More than any other team, Los Angeles has an offensive rhythm it can count on.

Phoenix can count on their offensive rhythm as well—count on it not to show up. Phoenix only got 24 shots on goal—which isn’t horrible, but nowhere near the volume they need to beat LA goalie Jonathan Quick. And more important, those aren’t quality shots. Three players were able to get four looks at the goal and two of the players in question were defensemen. Phoenix isn’t getting its best players in position to score, and while you can never write anything off to quickly, I defy anyone to come up with a single good reason why the Coyotes can win four of the next five and take the series. Heck, just come up with a good reason they’ll win two games (I won’t say one, because Smith could get them a W by himself at least once).

While Los Angeles dominates, the New York Rangers hope to win their second straight when the Eastern Conference Finals resumes tonight with Game 2 against the New Jersey Devils. I think New Jersey did a lot of what they needed to do to win in the opener, even if the third period went against them. But ultimately they need a little help. The Devils need Ranger goalie Henrik Lundqvist to have one of those games where he’s just a bit off—and they seem to happen at least every third game or so—and then NJ needs to lock down on Marian Gaborik and keep him off the puck.

NHL Western Conference Finals Preview: LA Kings-Phoenix

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We’re down the conference finals in the NHL playoffs, and the Western Conference battle starts on Sunday night when the Los Angeles Kings visit the Phoenix Coyotes. Both teams have won as underdogs in the first two rounds, especially the Kings who, as the 8-seed had to take out t#1 Vancouver and #2 St. Louis. Now it’s #3 Phoenix that’s next in line, as TheSportsNotebook previews the series.

Defense—specifically goaltending was the foundation of both teams all year long, and Kings goalie Jonathan Quick and Coyote netminder Mike Smith have taken their already formidable games up a notch for the playoffs. Quick withstood the immensely talented Vancouver frontline, while Smith survived a shot barrage put him on by Chicago and Nashville. This latter point though, underscores an edge Los Angeles has, and it’s the defensive team that’s in front of the goaltender. Los Angeles was pretty good during the season at preventing shots. They haven’t been as strong here in the playoffs, although playing five of nine games against the Canucks will hurt anyone’s numbers here. We can give Phoenix the same benefit of the doubt in their first-round game against offensive-minded Chicago, but they also left Smith exposed quite a bit against Nashville.  The Coyotes are getting better offensive work from their defensemen—Keith Yandle and Rostislav Klesla are among the team’s assist leaders in the playoffs—then they are at stopping shots.

The big surprise of the playoffs is not so much that Los Angeles has pulled the aforementioned upsets—when you have a goalie that’s talented and locked in, that’s always possible—it’s the way their offense has also stepped up. Dustin Brown leads the team with six goals and even when he’s not scoring he’s consistently active on the wing. At center Anze Kopitar and Mike Richards are distributing the puck and providing some scoring support. Overall, the entire team is moving the puck well, sharing in the offense, with Brown stepping up as the clear go-to guy to light the lamp. On the flip side, Phoenix is not getting that same kind of action. Antoine Vermette has played well at center, but he needs more help from forwards Ray Whitney, Shane Doan and Radim Vrbata than he’s gotten so far in the playoffs. The positive for the Coyotes—this trio played better against Nashville than they did through the regular season or in the first round against Chicago. Perhaps they’re going to become like the LA offense and start peaking at the right time.

Both goalies are strong enough that even power play goals are going to be tough to come by. Both teams killed penalties well all year and have done so in the playoffs, although in both cases, Los Angeles is a little better than Phoenix. If we anticipate a series filled with 2-1 and 1-0 games, a little better is all it takes.

Phoenix has home-ice advantage, but I believe that right now, Los Angeles is the better team. The seeding discrepancy is misleading. Phoenix defaulted to the #3 seed by virtue of nipping out the Kings for the Pacific Division title. In reality, these were the two worst teams in the Western Conference playoff field and not much separated them over an 82-game regular season. It looks to me like Los Angeles is the one who’s got more coming together on the offensive end right now, and while I fully expect Smith to continue his great games, he’ll be matched by Quick and LA can muster up a little bit more offense. The downside to picking Los Angeles? They’ve become the trendy pick, as evidenced by the fact they are a (-170) favorite to win the series (meaning you’d have to bet $170 to win $100), while you can get the Coyotes at (+150). The underdog is 5-1 in the six Western Conference playoff series to date. Is that a trend, or does it mean the favorite is due? For me, I’ll say the latter and while I’m not as sure as Las Vegas seems to be I’ll pick the Kings in six games.